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Sony Pictures has dropped the first teaser trailer for VENOM today, starring Tom Hardy in the title role. For those unfamiliar, Venom is a highly-popular Spider-Man villain in the Marvel comic books, and was brought to the big screen once before in Sam Raimi’s rather cluttered SPIDER-MAN 3, played then by Topher Grace. The concept in the comics is an alien symbiote attaches itself to a man named Eddie Brock, who then becomes this alien menace named Venom, exhibiting powers and abilities similar to Spidey. Personally, I think the idea of a Venom movie separate from the Spider-Man franchise is kind of risky. There’s so much story there to cover, and so much of it involves Spider-Man, that to separate it and make it its own thing seems like a huge misstep. But this is the same studio that reportedly forced Raimi to include Venom in his third film, when there were already two other villains to contend with in that story. Regardless of whether you think the movie itself is a good idea or not, the teaser trailer kind of drops the ball in a very obvious way… there’s no Venom in it. We do get a brief glimpse of the symbiote, but not one single image of the title character, which is the main thing all the fans will want to see. Surely there’s at least one CGI shot they could have used, I refuse to believe they haven’t started in on the special effects at this point. Listen Sony, I know what Tom Hardy looks like, if you’re going to sell a Venom movie to me at least have ONE shot of Venom in it. Outside of Hardy, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed, and Scott Haze. Tom Holland is rumored to appear as Spider-Man, but we’d guess no more than a cameo… again, probably a mistake not using him more. The movie is directed by Rueben Fleischer, who is best known for helming ZOMBIELAND. Take a look at the teaser trailer below and tell us your thoughts in the comments. So you know, I get that a “teaser” trailer is just meant to tease a film, but this just isn’t a very good one, and you only need look at Twitter responses to see just how disappointed many were after watching it.
One of Marvel’s most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award® nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
Great action movie.